}}In Christian theology, the Immaculate Conception is the conception of the Virgin Mary free from original sin by virtue of the merits of her son Jesus. The Catholic Church teaches that God acted upon Mary in the first moment of her conception, keeping her "immaculate".Denzinger, 1100.The Immaculate Conception is commonly confused with the virgin birth of Jesus, the latter being, rather, the doctrine of the Incarnation. While virtually all Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, it is principally Roman Catholics, along with various other Christian denominations, who believe in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.Although the belief that Mary was sinless, or conceived without original sin, has been widely held since Late Antiquity, the doctrine was not dogmatically defined in the Catholic Church until 1854 when Pope Pius IX, declared ex cathedra, i.e., using papal infallibility, in his papal bullIneffabilis Deus,WEB,weblink Catechism of the Catholic Church â "Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary", www.vatican.va, the Immaculate Conception to be doctrine. The Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8; in many Catholic countries, it is a holy day of obligation or patronal feast, and in some a national public holiday.WEB,weblink Christianity: Immaculate Conception, BBC, 25 May 2014,

Possibility of personal sin

The Encyclical Mystici Corporis from Pope Pius XII (1943) in addition holds that Mary was also sinless personally, "free from all sin, original or personal".Encyclical Mystici Corporis, 110 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090317235459weblink |date=March 17, 2009 }} In this, Pius XII repeats a position already expressed by the Council of Trent, which decreed "If anyone shall say that a man once justified can sin no more, nor lose grace, and that therefore he who falls and sins was never truly justified; or, on the contrary, that throughout his whole life he can avoid all sins even venial sins, except by a special privilege of God, as the Church holds in regard to the Blessed Virgin: let him be anathema."WEB,weblink Catechetics Online, yes,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110724140035weblink">weblink 2011-07-24, {{Mary}}

Mary's pre-redemption

When defining the dogma in Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX explicitly affirmed that Mary was redeemed in a manner more sublime. He stated that Mary, rather than being cleansed after sin, was completely prevented from contracting original sin in view of the foreseen merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race. In {{Bibleverse||Luke|1:47}}, Mary proclaims: "My spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour." This is referred to as Mary's pre-redemption by Christ. Since the Second Council of Orange against semi-pelagianism, the Catholic Church has taught that even had man never sinned in the Garden of Eden and was sinless, he would still require God's grace to remain sinless.Council of Orange II, Canon 19 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113162800weblink |date=2009-01-13 }} "That no one is saved except by God's mercy. Even if human nature remained in that integrity in which it was formed, it would in no way save itself without the help of its Creator; therefore, since without the grace of God it cannot guard the health which it received, how without the grace of God will it be able to recover what it has lost?"Theology for Beginners by Francis Joseph Sheed 1958 {{ISBN|0-7220-7425-5}} pages 134â138

Misconceptions

The doctrine of the immaculate conception (Mary being conceived free from original sin) is not to be confused with the virginal conception of her son Jesus. Catholics believe that Mary was conceived of both parents,ENCYCLOPEDIA, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913, Her body was formed in the womb of the mother, and the father had the usual share in its formation. The question does not concern the immaculateness of the generative activity of her parents.,weblink Immaculate Conception, 23 October 2018, traditionally known by the names of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne. In 1677, the Holy See condemned the error of Imperiali who taught that St. Anne in the conception and birth of Mary remained virgin, which had been a belief surfacing occasionally since the 4th century.WEB,weblink CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Anne, The Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (when Mary was conceived free from original sin) on 8 December, exactly nine months before celebrating the Nativity of Mary. The feast of the Annunciation (which commemorates the virginal conception and the Incarnation of Jesus) is celebrated on 25 March, nine months before Christmas Day.BOOK, The Catholicism Answer Book, John, Trigilio, Kenneth, Brighenti, 2007, 1-4022-0806-5, 59â62, BOOK, What Every Catholic Should Know about Mary, Terrence J., McNally, 1-4415-1051-6, 104â108,

Church Fathers

It is admitted that the doctrine as defined by Pius IX was not explicitly mooted before the 12th century. It is also agreed that "no direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture". But it is claimed that the doctrine is implicitly contained in the teaching of the Fathers. Their expressions on the subject of the sinlessness of Mary are, it is pointed out, so ample and so absolute that they must be taken to include original sin as well as actual. Thus in the first five centuries such epithets as "in every respect holy", "in all things unstained", "super-innocent", and "singularly holy" are applied to her; she is compared to Eve before the fall, as ancestress of a redeemed people; she is "the earth before it was accursed". The well-known words of St. Augustine (d. 430) may be cited: "As regards the mother of God," he says, "I will not allow any question whatever of sin." It is true that he is here speaking directly of actual or personal sin. But his argument is that all men are sinners; that they are so through original depravity; that this original depravity may be overcome by the grace of God, and he adds that he does not know but that Mary may have had sufficient grace to overcome sin "of every sort" (omni ex parte).Although the doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception appears only later among Latin (and particularly Frankish) theologians,Brian Reynolds, Gateway to Heaven: Marian Doctrine and Devotion Image and Typology in the Patristic and Medieval Periods, vol. 1 (NY: New City Press, 2012), 348â353. it became ever more manifest among Byzantine theologians reliant on Gregory Nazianzen's Mariology in the Medieval or Byzantine East. Although hymnographers and scholars, like the Emperor Justinian I, were accustomed to call Mary "prepurified" in their poetic and credal statements, the first point of departure for more fully commenting on Nazianzen's meaning occurs in Sophronius of Jerusalem.Sophronios of Jerusalem, In Sanctissimae Deiparae Annuntiationem (Patrologia Graeca 87.3:3248A 24): "Îá½Î´Îµá½¶Ï ÎºÎ±ÏÎ¬ ÏÎµ Î¼ÎµÎ¼Î±ÎºÎ¬ÏÎ¹ÏÏÎ±Î¹, Î¿á½Î´Îµá½¶Ï ÎºÎ±ÏÎ¬ ÏÎµ ÎºÎ±Î¸Î±Î³Î¯Î±ÏÏÎ±Î¹Â· Î¿á½Î´Îµá½¶Ï ÎºÎ±ÏÎ¬ ÏÎµ Î¼ÎµÎ¼ÎµÎ³Î¬Î»Ï Î½ÏÎ±Î¹, Î¿á½Î´Îµá½¶Ï ÎºÎ±ÏÎ¬ ÏÎµ ÏÏÎ¿ÎºÎµÎºÎ¬Î¸Î±ÏÏÎ±Î¹Â· Î¿á½Î´Îµá½¶Ï ÎºÎ±ÏÎ¬ ÏÎµ ÏÎµÏÎ¹Î·ÏÎ³Î±ÏÏÎ±Î¹, Î¿á½Î´Îµá½¶Ï ÎºÎ±ÏÎ¬ ÏÎµ á¼ÎºÏÎµÏÏÏÎ¹ÏÏÎ±Î¹." N.B., Î¿á½Î´Îµá½¶Ï ÎºÎ±ÏÎ¬ ÏÎµ ÏÏÎ¿ÎºÎµÎºÎ¬Î¸Î±ÏÏÎ±Î¹ oudeis kata se prokekathartai was rendered in Latin as nemo, sicut tu, purificante gratia praeoccupatus est. In other places Sophronius explains that the Theotokos was already immaculate, when she was "purified" at the Annunciation and goes so far as to note that John the Baptist is literally "holier than all 'Men' born of woman" since Mary's surpassing holiness signifies that she was holier than even John after his sanctification in utero.Sophronios of Jerusalem, In Sanctissimae Deiparae Annuntiationem (Patrologia Graeca, 87.3: 3273D 43): "Î Î½Îµá¿¦Î¼Î± á¼ Î³Î¹Î¿Î½ á¼Ïá½¶ Ïá½², Ïá½´Î½ á¼Î¼ÏÎ»Ï Î½ÏÎ¿Î½, ÎºÎ¬ÏÎµÎ¹ÏÎ¹, ÎºÎ±Î¸Î±ÏÏÏÎ­ÏÎ±Î½ ÏÎµ ÏÎ¿Î¹Î·ÏÏÎ¼ÎµÎ½Î¿Î½, ÎºÎ±á½¶ ÎºÎ±ÏÏÎ¿Î³ÏÎ½Î¿Î½ ÏÎ¿Î¹ ÏÎ±ÏÎµÎ¾ÏÎ¼ÎµÎ½Î¿Î½ Î´ÏÎ½Î±Î¼Î¹Î½."; idem, Encomium in S. Iohannem Baptistam, p. 87:3332C Sophronius' teaching is augmented and incorporated by St. John Damascene (d. 749/750). John, besides many passages wherein he extolls the Theotokos for her purification at the Annunciation, grants her the unique honor of "purifying the waters of baptism by touching them". This honor was most famously and firstly attributed to Christ, especially in the legacy of Nazianzen. As such, Nazianzen's assertion of parallel holiness between the prepurified Mary and purified Jesus of the New Testament is made even more explicit in Damascene in his discourse on Mary's holiness to also imitate Christ's baptism at the Jordan."The air, the fiery ether, the sky would have been made holy by the ascent of her spirit, as earth was sanctified by the deposition of her body. Even water had its share in the blessing: for she was washed in pure water, which did not so much cleanse her as it was itself consecrated." See John Damascene, On the Holy and Glorious Dormition and Transformation of Our Lady Mary, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin by Our Holy Father John, Monk of Damascus and Son of Mansour. Homily 2, in On the Dormition of Mary: Early Patristic Homilies, tr. B. Daley (Crestwood, NY :1998), 215. The Damascene's hymnongraphy and De fide Orthodoxa explicitly use Mary's "pre-purification" as a key to understanding her absolute holiness and unsullied human nature. In fact, Damascene (along with Nazianzen) serves as the source for nearly all subsequent promotion of Mary's complete holiness from her Conception by the "all pure seed" of Joachim and the womb "wider than heaven" of St. Ann.Christiaan Kappes, "The Immaculate Conception: Why Thomas Aquinas Denied, While John Duns Scotus, Gregory Palamas, and Mark Eugenicus Professed the Absolute Immaculate Existence of Mary" (Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2014), pp. 39â61

Medieval dispute about the doctrine

{{Catholic marian prayers sidebar}}Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century raised the question of the Immaculate Conception. A feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin had already begun to be celebrated in some churches of the West. St Bernard blames the canons of the metropolitan church of Lyon for instituting such a festival without the permission of the Holy See. In doing so, he takes occasion to repudiate altogether the view that the conception of Mary was sinless, calling it a "novelty." Some doubt, however, whether he was using the term "conception" in the same sense in which it is used in the definition of Pope Pius IX. Bernard would seem to have been speaking of conception in the active sense of the mother's cooperation, for in his argument he says: "How can there be absence of sin where there is concupiscence (libido)?" and stronger expressions follow, which could be interpreted to indicate that he was speaking of the mother and not of the child. Yet, Bernard also decries those who support the feast for trying to "add to the glories of Mary," which proves he was indeed talking about Mary.Saint Thomas Aquinas rejected the Immaculate Conception, saying if the Virgin Mary had been sanctified before her conception, she would not have needed the redemption of Christ concluding that "Blessed Virgin was sanctified after animation".WEB,weblink Summa Theologica, Volume 4 (Part III, First Section), . Aquinas distinguished between first time of conception, animation and birth: with the word "conception" is meant the first time of life of the human body, caused by the parents'union (except for the Virgin birth of Jesus), whereas the term "animation" indicates the following time where a soul is believed to be created by God, and then by Him unified together with the human body. The person exists only when the body has received its own soul. Latin Summa theologica affirms:{{Verse translation|lang=lt|Ad secundum dicendum, quod si numquam anima B[eatae] Virginis fuisset contagio originalis peccat inquinata, hoc derogaret dignitati Christi, secundm quam est universalis omnium Salvator. Et ideo sub Christo, qui salvari non indiguit, tamquam universalis Salvator, maxima fuit B. Virginis puritas. Nam Christus nullo modo contraxit originale peccatum sed in ipsa suae conceptionis fuit sanctus, secundum illud Luc., I, 35:. Sed B. Virgo contraxit quidem originale peccatum, sed ab eo fuit mundatam antequam ex utero nasceretur.BOOK, Norberto Del Prado,weblink Divus Thomas et bulla dogmatica "Ineffabilis Deus", Internet Archive, archive.org, lt, 1919, XIV-XV,weblink Dec 5, 2018, no,

TITLE = SUMMA THEOLOGICA THEOLOGIAE (COMPLETE & UNABRIDGED)

WEBSITE = ARCHIVE.ORG

PUBLISHER = COYOTE CANON PRESS

ARCHIVE-DATE = OCT 15, 2018, no, }}Saint Bonaventure (d. 1274), second only to Saint Thomas in his influence on the Christian schools of his age, hesitated to accept it for a similar reason. He believed that Mary was completely free from sin, but that she was not given this grace at the instant of her conception.WEB,weblink Mary's Immaculate Conception, The celebrated John Duns Scotus (d. 1308), a Friar Minor like Saint Bonaventure, argued, on the contrary, that from a rational point of view it was certainly as little derogatory to the merits of Christ to assert that Mary was by him preserved from all taint of sin, as to say that she first contracted it and then was delivered. Proposing a solution to the theological problem of reconciling the doctrine with that of universal redemption in Christ, he argued that Mary's immaculate conception did not remove her from redemption by Christ; rather it was the result of a more perfect redemption granted her because of her special role in salvation history.Encyclopedia of theology: a concise Sacramentum mundi by Karl Rahner 2004 {{ISBN|0-86012-006-6}} pages 896â898The arguments of Scotus, combined with a better acquaintance with the language of the early Fathers, gradually prevailed in the schools of the Western Church. In 1387 the university of Paris strongly condemned the opposite view.Scotus's arguments remained controversial, however, particularly among the Dominicans, who were willing enough to celebrate Mary's sanctificatio (being made free from sin) but, following the Dominican Thomas Aquinas' arguments, continued to insist that her sanctification could not have occurred until after her conception.Popular opinion remained firmly behind the celebration of Mary's conception. In 1439, the Council of Basel, which is not reckoned an ecumenical council, stated that belief in the immaculate conception of Mary is in accord with the Catholic faith. By the end of the 15th century the belief was widely professed and taught in many theological faculties, but such was the influence of the Dominicans, and the weight of the arguments of Thomas Aquinas (who had been canonised in 1323 and declared "Doctor Angelicus" of the Church in 1567) that the Council of Trent (1545â1563)âwhich might have been expected to affirm the doctrineâinstead declined to take a position.The papal bull defining the dogma, Ineffabilis Deus (1854), mentioned in particular the patrististic interpretation of {{bibleverse||Genesis|3:15}} as referring to a woman, Mary, who would be eternally at enmity with the evil serpent and completely triumphing over him. It said the Fathers saw foreshadowings of Mary's "wondrous abundance of divine gifts and original innocence" "in that ark of Noah, which was built by divine command and escaped entirely safe and sound from the common shipwreck of the whole world; in the ladder which Jacob saw reaching from the earth to heaven, by whose rungs the angels of God ascended and descended, and on whose top the Lord himself leaned;{{bibleverse||Genesis|28:12}} in that bush which Moses saw in the holy place burning on all sides, which was not consumed or injured in any way but grew green and blossomed beautifully;{{bibleverse||Exodus|3:2}} in that impregnable tower before the enemy, from which hung a thousand bucklers and all the armor of the strong;{{bibleverse||Song|4:4}} in that garden enclosed on all sides, which cannot be violated or corrupted by any deceitful plots;{{bibleverse||Song|4:12}} in that resplendent city of God, which has its foundations on the holy mountains;{{bibleverse||Psalm|87:1}} in that most august temple of God, which, radiant with divine splendours, is full of the glory of God;{{bibleverse||Isaiah|6:1â4}} and in very many other biblical types of this kind."The bull recounts that the Fathers interpreted the angel's address to Mary, "highly favoured one" or "full of grace",{{bibleverse||Luke|1:28}} as indicating that "she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction"; they "frequently compare her to Eve while yet a virgin, while yet innocence, while yet incorrupt, while not yet deceived by the deadly snares of the most treacherous serpent".

Claim of origin in Islamic doctrine

{{see|Mary in Islam}}File:Turkey.Konya035.jpg|thumb|Manuscript of Chapter 19 (SÅ«ratu Maryam) from a 9th-century Qur'anQur'anGeorge Sale in 1734 proposed that the doctrine of immaculate conception of Mary may be alluded to in the text of the Qur'an. Thus, commenting in 1734 on the passage "I have called her Mary; and I commend her to thy protection, and also her issue, against Satan driven away with stones", Sale stated: "It is not improbable that the pretended immaculate conception of the virgin Mary is intimated in this passage. For according to a tradition of Mohammed, every person that comes into the world, is touched at his birth by the devil, and therefore cries out, Mary and her son only excepted; between whom, and the evil spirit God placed a veil, so that his touch did not reach them. And for this reason they say, neither of them were guilty of any sin, like the rest of the children of Adam."George Sale, Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, chapter 3, p. 39Edward Gibbon in volume 5 of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in 1788, wrote: "The Latin Church has not disdained to borrow from the Koran the immaculate conception of his virgin mother." That he was speaking of her immaculate conception by her mother, not of her own virginal conception of Jesus, is shown by his footnote: "In the xiith century the immaculate conception was condemned by St. Bernard as a presumptuous novelty."Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. V, chapter 50 In the aftermath of the definition of the dogma in 1854, this charge was repeated in an article published in 1865: "Strange as it may appear, that the doctrine which the church of Rome has promulgated, with so much pomp and ceremony, 'for the destruction of all heresies, and the confirmation of the faith of her adherents', should have its origin in the Mohametan Bible; yet the testimony of such authorities as Gibbon, and Sale, and Forster, and Gagnier, and Maracci, leave no doubt as to the marvellous fact."WEB,weblink The Evangelical Repository and United Presbyterian Review, 1865, Without making Islamic belief the origin of the doctrine defined in 1854, a similarity between the two has been noted also by Roman Catholic writers such as Thomas Patrick Hughes,ENCYCLOPEDIA, Thomas Patrick, Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam, First published London 1885, Asian Educational Services, 2001, 9788120606722, IMMACULATE CONCEPTION,weblink 23 October 2018, This doctrine was asserted by Muhammad (Mishkat al-Masabih, MishkÄt, book i., ch. iii., pt. 1)., William Bernard Ullathorne,BOOK, William Bernard, Ullathorne, The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God: An Exposition, 1855, 1-110-89977-7, Mahomet and Martin Luther,weblink and Giancarlo Finazzo.Giancarlo Finazzo. "The Virgin Mary in the Koran". L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English, 13 April 1978, page 4. Quote: "The dogma of the Immaculate Conception ... is univocally recognized by the Islamic religion."The English Commentary of the Holy Quran {{year needed|date=July 2018}} argues that this interpretation is misleading because Islam does not embrace the concept of original sin to begin with, so Mary could not have been exempt from it.English 5 Volume CommentaryweblinkCleo McNelly Kearns, The Virgin Mary, Monotheism and Sacrifice (Cambridge University Press 2008 {{ISBN|978-0-52187156-3}}), p. 254Moreover, Hannah's prayer in the Quran for her child to remain protected from Satan (Shayá¹­Än) was said after it had already been born, not before and expresses a natural concern any righteous parent would have.A hadith nevertheless states that the only children born without the "touch of Satan" were Mary and Jesus-Bukhari, Anbiya, 44; Muslim, Fada'il, trad. 146, 147 The specific mention of Mary and Jesus in this hadith has been argued{{by whom|date=July 2018}}{{year needed|date=July 2018}} as taken to "represent a class of people", in keeping with the Arabic language and the Quranic verse [O Satan,] surely thou shalt have no power over My servants, except such of the erring ones as choose to follow thee (15:42).

Later developments

For the Roman Catholic Church the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gained additional significance from the reputed apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858. At Lourdes a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed that a beautiful woman appeared to her and said, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Many believe the woman to have been the Blessed Virgin Mary and pray to her as such.WEB,weblink Prayer on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8, 2002) â John Paul II, www.vatican.va, Pope Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception "not so much because of proofs in Scripture or ancient tradition, but due to a profound sensus fidelium and the Magisterium".WEB,weblink Agenzia Fides â Congregazione per l'Evangelizzazione dei Popoli, Fides.org, 2009-05-05, yes,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090615205831weblink">weblink 2009-06-15, Speaking of the witness of the Church Fathers in claiming for Mary titles such as "Free from all contagion of sin", Pope Pius XII wrote:}}The Roman Catholic tradition has a well-established philosophy for the study of the Immaculate Conception and the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the field of Mariology, with Pontifical schools such as the Marianum specifically devoted to this.WEB,weblink Promoters of Marian Study and Culture, February 28, 2008, yes,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071202032938weblink">weblink December 2, 2007, Publisherâs Notice in the Second Italian Edition (1986), reprinted in English Edition, Gabriel Roschini, O.S.M. (1989). The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta (English Edition). Kolbe's Publication Inc. {{ISBN|2-920285-08-4}}According to Bernard Ullathorne, a 19th-century English Roman Catholic prelate, "the expressions â The Immaculate Conception â The Immaculate Preservation â The Immunity â and Exception from original sin, are all phrases which bear the same signification, and are used equally to express one and the same mystery."Ullathorne, William Bernard, The immaculate conception of the Mother of God, an exposition, 1855.

Feast day

File:Quadrittu (cropped).jpg|thumb|The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on 7 December in Saponara, SicilySicilyBy 750, the feast of her conception (December 8) was widely celebrated in the Byzantine East, under the name of the Conception (active) of Saint Anne. In the West it was known as the feast of the Conception (passive) of Mary, and was associated particularly with the Normans, whether these introduced it directly from the EastFrancis X. Weiser, The Holyday Book (Harcourt, Brace and Co. 1956) or took it from English usage.Michael Kunzler, The Church's Liturgy (Continuum International 2002 {{ISBN|978-0-8264-1353-6}}), pp. 434â435 The spread of the feast, by now with the adjective "Immaculate" attached to its title, met opposition on the part of some, on the grounds that sanctification was possible only after conception.Frederick Holweck, "Immaculate Conception" in The Catholic Encyclopedia 1910 Critics included Saints Bernard of Clairvaux, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. Other theologians defended the expression "Immaculate Conception", pointing out that sanctification could be conferred at the first moment of conception in view of the foreseen merits of Christ, a view held especially by Franciscans.Matthew Bunson, OSV's Encyclopedia of Catholic History (Our Sunday Visitor 2004 {{ISBN|978-1-59276-026-8}}), p. 455William of Ware and Blessed John Duns Scotus pointed out that Maryâs Immaculate Conception enhances Jesusâ redemptive work.Foley OFM, Leonard. "Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception", Saint of the Day, (revised by Pat McCloskey OFM), AmericanCatholic.org One of the chief proponents of the doctrine was the Hungarian Franciscan Pelbartus Ladislaus of TemesvÃ¡r.Z. J. Kosztolnyik, Some Hungarian Theologians in the Late Renaissance, Church History. Volume: 57. Issue: 1, 1988. Z. J. Kosztolnyik, Pelbartus of Temesvar: a Francican Preacher and Writer of the Late Middle Ages in Hungary, Vivarium, 5/1967. Kenan B. Osborne, O.F.M., The History of Franciscan Theology, The Franciscan Institute St. Bonaventure, New York, 1994. Franklin H. Littell (ed.), Reformation Studies, John Knox Press, Richmond, Virginia, 1962.On 28 February 1476, Pope Sixtus IV, authorized those dioceses that wished to introduce the feast to do so, and introduced it to his own diocese of Rome in 1477, with a specially composed Mass and Office of the feast.John D. Bryant, The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God" (Boston 1855), p. 166 With his bull Cum praeexcelsa of 28 February 1477, in which he referred to the feast as that of the Conception of Mary, without using the word "Immaculate", he granted indulgences to those who would participate in the specially composed Mass or Office on the feast itself or during its octave, and he used the word "immaculate" of Mary, but applied instead the adjective "miraculous" to her conception.WEB,weblink Catechetics Online, yes,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110724142046weblink">weblink 2011-07-24, WEB,weblink St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association: Immaculate Conception, Pilgrimages Committee, On 4 September 1483, referring to the feast as that of "the Conception of Immaculate Mary ever Virgin", he condemned both those who called it mortally sinful and heretical to hold that the "glorious and immaculate mother of God was conceived without the stain of original sin" and those who called it mortally sinful and heretical to hold that "the glorious Virgin Mary was conceived with'' original sin", since, he said, "up to this time there has been no decision made by the Roman Church and the Apostolic See." This decree was reaffirmed by the Council of Trent.Pope Pius V, while including the feast in the Tridentine Calendar, removed the adjective "Immaculate" and suppressed the existing special Mass for the feast, directing that the Mass for the Nativity of Mary (with the word "Nativity" replaced by "Conception") be used instead.WEB,weblink cavendish, Decree of Our Most Holy Father Pope Paul V in Favor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Lima, Peru : 1618. World Digital Library. Part of that earlier Mass was revived in the Mass that Pope Pius IX ordered to be used on the feast and that is still in use.WEB,weblink LAND OF MARY IMMACULATE, On 6 December 1708, Pope Clement XI made the feast of the Conception of Mary, at that time still with the Nativity of Mary formula for the Mass, a Holy Day of Obligation. Until Pope Pius X reduced in 1911 the number of Holy Days of Obligation to 8, there were in the course of the year 36 such days, apart from Sundays.WEB,weblink CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Supremi Disciplinae, Writers such as Sarah Jane Boss interpret the existence of the feast as a strong indication of the Church's traditional belief in the Immaculate Conception.Mary by Sarah Jane Boss, Neil Warmsley 2004 {{ISBN|0-8264-5788-6}} page 139

Eastern Orthodox

File:Perlez Mary-Immaculate.jpg|thumb|The Immaculate Conception is also portrayed by artists in the Eastern Orthodox Church, for example Holy Mary in Perlez, Vojvodina, SerbiaSerbiaContemporary Eastern Orthodox Christians often object to the dogmatic declaration of her immaculate conception as an "over-elaboration" of the faith and because they see it as too closely connected with a particular interpretation of the doctrine of ancestral sin.John Meyendorff, The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today (St Vladimir's Seminary Press 1996 {{ISBN|978-0-913836-81-1}}), p. 181 All the same, the historical and authentic tradition of Mariology in Byzantium took its historical point of departure from Sophronios, Damascene, and their imitators. The most famous Eastern Orthodox theologian to imply Mary's Immaculate Conception was St. Gregory Palamas. Though many passages from his works were long known to extol and attribute to Mary a Christlike holiness in her human nature, traditional objections to Palamas' disposition toward the Immaculate Conception typically rely on a poor understanding of his doctrine of "the purification of Mary" at the Annunciation.WEB, Immaculate Conception: Why Thomas Aquinas Denied, While Duns Scotus, Gregory Palamas, and Mark Eugenicus Professed Absolute Immaculate Existence of Mary, Apr 28, 2014,weblink Christiaan Kappes, 69â81, Bedford, MA, Academy of the Immaculate, Academia, Not only did he explicitly cite St. Gregory Nazianzen for his understanding of Jesus' purification at His baptism and Mary's at the Annunciation, but Theophanes of Nicaea, Joseph Bryennius, and Gennadios Scholarios all explicitly placed Mary's Conception as the first moment of her all-immaculate participation in the divine energies to such a degree that she was always completely without spot and graced.Christiaan Kappes, "The Immaculate Conception: Why Thomas Aquinas Denied, While John Duns Scotus, Gregory Palamas, and Mark Eugenicus Professed the Absolute Immaculate Existence of Mary" (Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2014), pp. 69â92, 157â169 In addition to Emperor Manuel II and Gennadius Scholarius, St. Mark of Ephesus also fervently defended Mary's title as "prepurified" against the Dominican Manuel Calecas, who was perhaps promoting thomistic Mariology that denied Mary's all-holiness from the first moment of her existence.Mark of Ephesus, On the Distinction between Essence and Energy: First Antirrhetic against Manuel Kalekas. Editio princeps, ed. M. Pilavakis (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), London 1987: "But He did so with her, after he prepurified (ÏÏÎ¿ÎºÎ±Î¸Î±ÏÎ¸ÎµÎ¯Ïá¿) her through a most profuse grace by means of the protecting Holy Spirit and divine power ..."

Oriental Orthodox

body and sanctified it and made for it a dwelling in her for {{Smallcaps2|ADAM'S}} salvation. She [i.e., {{Smallcaps2|MARY}}] was born without blemish, for He made her pure, without pollution, and she redeemed his debt without carnal union and embrace ... Through the transgression of {{Smallcaps2|EVE}} we died and were buried, and by the purity of {{Smallcaps2|MARY}} we receive honour, and are exalted to the heights.|Kebra Nagast (emphasis added)WEB,weblink The Kebra Nagast: 96. Concerning the Prophecy about CHRIST, }}

Old Catholic

While Old Catholics do not reject the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and some of their parishes venerate Mary as immaculately conceived and celebrate the feast of her Immaculate Conception, they do not accept its definition as a dogma, since they reject papal infallibility and, with it, the Pope's authority to define dogma.WEB,weblink Frequently Asked Questions About The North American Old Roman Catholic Church, North American Old Roman Catholic Church, 2016-03-13,

Protestantism

Martin Luther, who initiated the Protestant Reformation, said: "Mother Mary, like us, was born in sin of sinful parents, but the Holy Spirit covered her, sanctified and purified her so that this child was born of flesh and blood, but not with sinful flesh and blood. The Holy Spirit permitted the Virgin Mary to remain a true, natural human being of flesh and blood, just as we. However, he warded off sin from her flesh and blood so that she became the mother of a pure child, not poisoned by sin as we are. For in that moment when she conceived, she was a holy mother filled with the Holy Spirit and her fruit is a holy pure fruit, at once God and truly man, in one person."BOOK, Brecht, Martin, 1985, Martin Luther, Translated by James Schaaf, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1, His Road to Reformation, 1483â1521, 978-0-8006-2813-0, 291, Some Lutherans, such as the members of the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, support the doctrine.Most Protestants reject the doctrine because they do not consider the development of dogmatic theology to be authoritative apart from biblicalexegesis, and because the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is not taught in the Bible.The Protestant faith by George Wolfgang Forell 1962 {{ISBN|0-8006-1095-4}} page 23 The formal pronouncement of Mary's Immaculate Conception by the Catholic Church in 1854 further alienated some Protestant churches largely due to its implication that not all have sinned.Jesus in history, thought, and culture: an encyclopedia, Volume 1 by James Leslie Houlden 2003 {{ISBN|1-57607-856-6}} page

Anglicanism

Belief in Mary's immaculate conception is not a doctrine within Anglicanism, although it is shared by many Anglo-Catholics.Our Lady Saint Mary by J.G.H. Barry, 2008, {{ISBN|0-554-24332-6}}, pages 25â27 In the Church of England's Common Worship prayer book, 8 December is designated a Lesser Festival of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (without the adjective "immaculate").WEB,weblink Common Worship, The report "Mary: Faith and Hope in Christ", by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, concluded that the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions.Ecumenical Affairs â Dialogues â Anglican Roman Catholic Paragraph 78 â Accessed 8 December 2008 But the report expressed concerns that the Roman Catholic dogmatic definitions of these concepts implies them to be "revealed by God", stating: "The question arises for Anglicans, however, as to whether these doctrines concerning Mary are revealed by God in a way which must be held by believers as a matter of faith."Ecumenical Affairs â Dialogues â Anglican Roman Catholic Paragraph 60 â Accessed 8 December 2008Other than Anglo-Catholics, most Anglicans reject the doctrine that Mary was sinless and conceived without original sin, often citing that it is not within the Holy Scripture and is against the redemptive role and purpose of Jesus Christ merited for all human beings.

Response: BOOK, St. Francis Press, Storff, Hugolinus, O.F.M., The Immaculate Conception: The Teaching of St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure and Bl. J. Duns Scotus on the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, San Francisco, Calif., 2018-02-10, 1925,weblink

"St. Augustine and Original Sin" â a short article on the different understandings of Original Sin in Eastern and Western Christianity, without distinguishing Protestant theology from Roman Catholic. The latter holds that "original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 405).